Finished reading Darkest Days by Stanley Gallon...a lot of it is pretty far fetched stuff. Honestly I doubt much of the world would be habitable at all if the events it described unfolded. Still it kind of involves you in the story and keeps you guessing as to how it's all going to play out.

Normally books are better than movies made of them, but sometimes it's a disillusioning experience to read the source material of a film you love (LA Confidential being an example; Friday the 13th being another), but Norman Maclean's A River Runs Through It, while different in many ways from the wonderful movie version, held up well on its own without diminishing the regard I have always had for the onscreen version. (I really think the 1992 film is one of the 100 best of all time.) I'm glad I read it.

Just finished re-reading CAESAR'S WOMEN, the fourth volume in Colleen McCullough's MASTERS OF ROME series. I cannot put these books down when I pick them up, and they are so massive - but I do love them! So cool to just immerse yourself in another time and place, when titans strode the earth in human form!

It is violent, you're right, almost to the point of overkill, so that by about the fifth slaying the body count begins to seem secondary to other aspects of the jumbled plot. Did you notice, though, that Bateman kills exactly as many men as women in this so-called misogynistic book?

That's assuming he ever really kills anyone at all, which he may not. If you read Rules of Attraction, probably B.E.E.'s best book, Patrick Bateman's brother Sean drops some big hints that Patrick really isn't all that in the grand scheme of things, and except for a couple reasons I really WOULD think the big secret to American Psycho is that much of what Patrick Bateman describes takes place between his ears. (He describes dumping his fiancée, but other Yuppies are heard gossiping about how she dumped him; Bateman has a drawn-out description of murdering a rival with an ax and then taking over his apartment and using the dead man's name, but at least one witness tells of meeting the same man alive and well in London. He tells us he has this massive shoot-out with police that surely could never have taken place. Even the detective who comes and harasses Bateman at Pierce & Pierce---even that name's an inside joke---was, if you notice, the exact same age as Bateman, which may indicate it's his conscience or at least his sense of worry chasing him.)

I say I WOULD conclude the book is a low-ranking Yuppie's empowering revenge fantasy except in other books Bateman shows up in front of new characters with blood on his clothes and is described as a creepy dude obsessed with serial killers. And then of course in Lunar Park, the final verdict seems to be that he is exactly what he told us he was in American Psycho: namely a murderous American Psycho!

You know the whole book probably works best as a morbid satire, and at times it's really pretty funny. I should re-read it one of these days.

And by the way, don't know if you've seen it but at the time of the movie Ellis authorized a twenty-ish page short story that shows us Bateman a decade after the conclusion of American Psycho, divorced and with a son, whom he describes as "instinctively" knowing for his own survival which fabrics, which stocks of paper, etc. are of the finest quality. As Bateman tells it, it's his paternal approval of the boy's appreciation of quality that has stayed his hand.

Anne Perry'sBluegate Fields5th or 6th in the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt seriesReprint edition

You always remember your first one. I had picked up a book at random and was reading it, when I came upon a character, and I said: "Wow! That's me." Or, more likely, I said: "Wow! That's just like me." And over 40 years and almost 80 characters later, I'm still looking for 'em and still finding 'em. Characters for whom I have an EXTREME empathy. Characters for whom I know what they'll say. What they'll do. Almost even before the author or authoress does. But, especially I know what drives 'em: their weaknesses.

the cowardice -- the envy -- the fear -- the greed -- the hatred -- the jealousy -- the lust -- the pride -- the rage -- the slyness -- the stupidity -- the wrath.

And to push back the veil, to pull back the curtain, to reveal something of myself, here is an example of what I mean from the story above.

If you want a strong male character, then read something written by a man. They have a better understanding of other males than most female writers, and that applies to both adult and juvenile characters. I will say that when women do write about a male character, they are better with sons and younger brothers than fathers and husbands.

NationalityEnglish

Overall:Americans 1stEnglish 2ndGermans 3rd

Maybe because I came out of a stolid German-American family on my father's side. Plus a half dozen other European nationalities. No problem there. Though, not surprising, I've never i.d. with a female character. And perhaps more surprisingly, I've never i.d. with a racial minority for some reason.

The one that bothers me the most is the sexual assault, but it only happened twice, and both were dead before the end of the book "I ain't foolin' 'round!" Actually, it is simpler to name those that do not get an automatic death penalty, then those that do.

There is no truer test of a character's character than to watch 'em as they die. Which is probably why the death rate is over 50%. Then for those who are not killed off somehow, the injury rate is another 33%. Making a casualty rate of over 80%.